Like its sister ship, the Daedalus, it was deployed to the Pegasusgalaxy shortly after its commissioning and provided assistance to the Atlantis expedition there. Following this, the Apollo seemed to be mainly stationed on Earth while servicing Atlantis occasionally.

Contents

Crew

Commanding officers

Known crew

History

The Ark of Truth

The Apollo was rushed into service when several Ori warships made their way towards Earth, with the ship posted to defend the planet. However, the ship never saw battle as the Ori ships stayed outside the Solar system and the Ori were already defeated by the Ark of Truth. Sometime after that, the ship was sent to serve Atlantis. (SG1: "The Ark of Truth")

First strike on Asuras

"I'm here to inform you that in precisely twelve hours, the Apollo -- in consort with your team -- will launch a surgical strike on the Replicator planet."

On its first voyage to Atlantis, the Apollo arrived ahead of schedule, impressing Dr.Elizabeth Weir. The ship's first mission was to destroy a fleet of ships being constructed by the Asurans, presumably to be used in an attack against Earth. This marked the first use of the Horizon weapons system, which could be deployed from a bomb bay on the Apollo's underside. After observing the weapons' detonation, the Apollo briefly withdrew while Lt. ColonelJohn Sheppard conducted a battle damage assessment in a cloakedPuddle Jumper, and then returned to Atlantis after retrieving him.

Not long afterward, a small satellite appeared in orbit of Lantea, and the Apollo was dispatched to investigate. Shortly after identifying the satellite as carrying a Stargate, the ship was hit by a powerful energy beam which the Asurans fired through the connecting wormhole, before the satellite focused its attention on Atlantis itself. The Apollo's weapons proved ineffective against the satellite's shield, and with their shields severely weakened, the Apollo was unable to contribute directly to Atlantis' defense. When Weir opted to move Atlantis to another world, M12-578, the Apollo evacuated all nonessential personnel from the city, and did not accompany it into hyperspace. (SGA: "First Strike")

Search for Atlantis

When the Apollo arrived at the designated rendezvous point, and Atlantis wasn't there, they contacted the Midway space station to notify them of the situation. With the help of ColonelSamantha Carter, the ship's sensor range was drastically increased, allowing it to search for Atlantis along the route between Lantea and M12-578. After successfully locating the city and learning of Lt. ColonelJohn Sheppard's raid on Asuras to retrieve a new Zero Point Module, the Apollo left for Asuras, rescuing Sheppard and his team. The ship briefly engaged an Asuran cruiser in the process, but quickly withdrew before either side suffered serious damage. Later, after Atlantis safely landed on M35-117, the Apollo remained in orbit for a short time to render any assistance to the expedition that they might require. (SGA: "Adrift", "Lifeline")

Battle with the Hybrid

During an attempt to set up survey satellites to monitor the current Wraith/Asuran war, Apollo recovered a ship containing Angelus, who claimed to be an Ancient and the sole survivor of the planet Eraavis after it was destroyed by the Asurans. However, it was later revealed that he was actually an unwitting 'Trojan Horse' created by the Hybrid, an Asuran experiment to combine Replicator nanites and living flesh that had developed out of control. While Angelus unwittingly infected Atlantis, fragments of his ship hi-jacked Apollo, forcing it out of hyperspace near a Wraith fleet and forcing it to hide around a gas giant with most of its systems offline. Fortunately, the crew were able to drive the Hybrid out through the airlock into the gas giant, buying them time to repair the engines and escape attacking Wraith cruisers. With most of their systems repaired, Apollo formed a temporary alliance with an Asuran ship to destroy the planet where the Hybrid had been created, ending its threat once and for all. (SGA: "Angelus")

Further duties

In early 2008, the Atlantis team learned of aReplicator loose on Earth and used the Apollo, which was in Earth orbit at the time, as a base of operations. With the help of Ava Dixon, Doctor Bill Lee was able to calibrate the ship's sensors to detect the Replicator though it later made itself immune to this. During the final battle with the Replicator, Sheppard impaled it in the side with a knife containing a locator beacon before signaling the Apollo. The Apollo then used the locator beacon to beam the Replicator into low-Earth orbit where it burned up in the atmosphere. (SGA: "Outcast")

However, the team picked up a weak subspace signal in Wraith code sent, through subspace, from another reality. The Wraith message contained the coordinates to Earth, and the Hive ship was on its way. However, Dr.Rodney McKay was able to calculate where the Hive ship would drop out of hyperspace before reaching Earth. They then notified Stargate Command via Atlantis once the communications array was repaired.

In the Milky Waygalaxy, ColonelAbraham Ellis and two of Earth's starships, the Apollo and the new Sun Tzu, failed miserably to stop the Wraith ship, with the Apollo, in bad shape herself, taking on crew from the crippled Sun Tzu. Then they relayed a message back to Atlantis, detailing the failure to stop the Hive. (SGA: "Enemy at the Gate")

Unlike the Sun Tzu, the Apollo proved to be more immediately repairable as Colonel Samantha Carter stated that they still had to recover the Sun Tzu if it was possible to repair it, indicating that that ship was possibly beyond repair. However, the Apollo was back in service by that point or soon would be as Carter stated that the George Hammond would bring the active number of Earth ships up to four, meaning the Daedalus, Odyssey, Hammond and Apollo. (SGA: "Legacy: Homecoming")

Despite being sent instead of the Daedalus in "First Strike" to fight the Replicators, the Apollo rarely went to the Pegasus galaxy, with the Daedalus resuming this role after the mission. Why was never made clear, but the Apollo did still make occasional trips to Atlantis as shown with its appearance in "Remnants". As a result, it seems the Apollo is usually only sent to Atlantis when its needed for special missions but otherwise the duties of missions to Atlantis is relegated to the Daedalus. Indeed, the Daedalus is generally the ship mentioned to be servicing Atlantis even when it doesn't appear in an episode.